Sunday, 25 January 2015

If you saw yesterday's post, then you'll already be aware of the fact that I'll be continuing the Dungeon Monthly project for at least another year (all being well).

But just in case you're new to the blog, here's a quick recap of how it all started...

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- RECAP -

Back in 2011 I had the crazy idea of drawing a dungeon geomorph each and every week, and posting the resulting map here on the blog. As you'd expect, at the end of the year I amassed 52 different maps ...all of which can be found in THIS google+ album.

The following year, I did the same again, except this time I decided to draw cave maps (instead of dungeons) ...all of which can be found in THIS google+ album.

After that I was feeling a little constrained by the size of these geomorphs, and so from 2013 onwards I have been drawing larger maps (though at a slower rate of one per month) ...and thus the Dungeon Monthly project was born.

So, as you can see, although the Dungeon Monthly project is only just entering it's third year, there's actually four years worth of maps to delve into - all of which can be connected to one another to produce a wide variety of dungeon layouts.

-five maps pieced together to create a large dungeon-

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- JANUARY'S MAP -

Anyway, now that I've got all of that out of the way, here's the first map of 2015...

(note that unlabelled versions of all of the maps from 2013 onwards can be found in THIS google+ album).

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It would also be remiss of me if I didn't also mention that I've just launched a Patreon campaign for the Dungeon Monthly Project ...so if you want to show your support (and perhaps spur me on to create even more of these (or similar) maps) then head on over to the Patreon page, or simply let me know what you think in the comments section below :)

Saturday, 24 January 2015

It's been over a month since I last posted anything on the blog, and so I thought I'd do a quick update to let you know what's coming up in the next couple of weeks...

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The Dungeon Monthly Project

After much deliberation I have decided to try and continue the Dungeon Monthly Project indefinitely.

If you're not familiar with the project - the aim is to draw a new dungeon geomorph each and every month (like the one pictured above - which I have done for the past two years), and then post it on the blog for people to use in their home games (be that printing them out for their notes, or using them in conjunction with their favourite VTT).

I'm also trying something new with these - and so I have set up a Patreon* page for folks who'd like to help support the project (though the maps themselves will remain as free downloads - so nothing will change in that respect).

However, if the Patreon campaign proves to be successful, I will be able to spend more time creating this kind of (free) content ...which, to begin with, will mean more free maps each month (the style of which will depend on the input of the patrons themselves - so it could be simply more of the same, or perhaps a separate range of colour geomorphs, or a set of geomorphs that only features 'mines', etc.).

*note that if you're unfamiliar with Patreon, here's a short video that explains it pretty well:

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Hand Drawn Maps

If you've been following me for a while, you'll no doubt be aware of the fact that most of my 'artwork' (and I use that term loosely) is generated digitally. However, if you've been checking out my G+ or facebook pages recently, you'll have noticed that I've begun experimenting with more of a hand-drawn style of map (though I'm still doing the colouring in photoshop).

So, sometime during the next couple of weeks, I'm hoping to launch a new product range (tentatively called 'Half-a-Dozen Hand Drawn Maps'), which will feature 6 of these maps (not surprisingly :) ) in a low-cost booklet.

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Into the Village

Towards the end of last year I began drawing a number of (vaguely dark-age) building maps.

I had originally intended to include them in an Age of Shadow 'village' supplement (mapping out an entire human settlement, with an accompanying Age of Shadow write-up - complete with statblocks and descriptions for several important NPCs) - but I've instead opted to release them as a sister-range to the Into the City map-packs, so that folks can use them with any game/setting they require.

Like the 'hand drawn maps', the first of these 'Into the Village' map-packs should begin surfacing in the next week or so (starting with a free example).

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So, over the next month or so, you should start seeing a lot more activity :)